Eat Drink Hong Kong

This is one of a number of restaurants that have sprung up in Sheung Wan in recent months. “Don’t Worry. eat curry”, the menu exhorts, “A Taste of Modern Indian Cuisine”. It sounded good to me so I went in and took a seat.

It’s a small restaurant but bright and cheerful with orange being the dominant colour. The staff are friendly and helpful and produced poppadoms within moments of my sitting down. I ordered a bottle of Kingfisher beer ($30) to go with it and turned to the menu.

Of course all our old favourites are there, korma, Madras and vindaloo. Tikkas in both fish and chicken and, what looked to me to be great value at $158, a tandoori mixed grill. This included both the tikkas, seekh kebab and lamb.

But in places like this I always like to look for the things that are a little unusual. One of the first things that caught my eye was the inclusion of a number of salads. Tandoori chicken tossed with cucumber and tomatoes ($45) sounded good as did the herb crusted fillet of sole with green salad ($58). Though the latter didn’t sound very Indian.

Elsewhere on the menu the Lamb Shank Masala ($135) sounded very good. A baby lamb leg cooked in a crunchy masala sauce. I was very tempted but I had a suspicion that it might be a fairly large dish. Not that such considerations have ever stopped me before but I was intrigued by the Fish Head Curry ($88).

This is made with a fresh salmon head. I’ve had fish head curries before but I couldn’t recall ever having one made with salmon and I was keen to find out how a flavour as distinctive as salmon would work in a curry. According to the menu it is a secret recipe that includes mustard seeds, eggplant and poached in a “special condiments” curry.

The curry itself was slightly dry in flavour and a little tangy and fish head was indeed very fresh. It was quite a surprise to find the salmon flavour in there at the start but after a few mouthfuls my palette warmed to the task and by the time I’d finished that, and the Palak Paneer ($48) that I’d ordered to accompany it, I was rummaging around in the debris to make sure I hadn’t missed any tasty morsels.

I’d ordered the curry medium spicy but it seemed a little hotter than I would expect and garnished with dried chillies. This doesn’t bother me at all but for people who don’t like curries at the very spicy end it is probably worth making sure the waiter understands or ask for very mild.

I mopped up with the remains of a naan and I had to admit that I was feeling quite full.

There are no desserts listed on the menu but the waitress did confess to having Gulab Jamun and I felt it was my solemn duty to indulge. It was actually very good gulab jamun and I was glad that I did.